Posts Tagged ‘Almost’

Take and Use iPad Almost Anywhere With iBackFlip Original

Remember waiting in line at the Apple store to buy an iPad? Wouldn’t it have been nice to have, well, an iPad to use while you stood in that long line? Enter the iBackFlip Original. Florida-based iBackFlip Studios created this innovative carrying bag that doubles as a portable desk.

When closed, the iBackFlip resembles a typical messenger bag. It is, however, designed specifically for the iPad. The bag features carefully concealed magnets that work with the iPad 2′s sync/wake sensor in the same manner as Apple’s Smart Cover. It includes a smart phone/hot spot pocket, a utility pouch, and even a spot to stow a stylus. Check out a video of the iBackFlip in action after the break.

To use the bag as a hands-free iPad holder, simply swivel the bag to the front of your body and open the straps. It looks as if the iPad is held quite close to the body, allowing the user to keep a low profile in public spaces.

The iBackFlip is compatible with the original iPad and iPad 2. It is made in the USA. It retails for $69.95, plus $5.00 shipping, and can be purchased from the company’s web site. The current estimate for delivery of an iBackFlip Original is 1 -2 weeks.

If iBackFlip works as it is described, it should keep a user’s iPad safely stowed in its case until it is needed. It is easy to imagine taking the iPad along on a casual bike ride or hike. Specialized programs, such as iBird Pro HD, would be enhanced because bird enthusiasts would have a flat surface on which to record their sightings in the field.

Would you give the iBackFlip a try? Tell us in the comments where you would like to put the bag and its built-in desk to work.

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After Almost Two Days of Outage, Cydia is Back Online

Jailbreak fans, rejoice, as Cydia, the main repository for non-Apple approved iOS apps, just went back online after 86 hours offline.

Cydia was one of the many websites which used Amazon’s EC2 cloud-computing services, recently affected by a major outage that took them offline. Cydia’s founder, Jay Freeman (also known as saurik) just announced the good news via its Twitter account.

After 86 hours offline, Cydia is finally back! I’m eating some celebratory cake, and am looking forward to a night with >1.5 hours of sleep!

Amazon’s EC2 outage was limited to the Amazon Northern Virginia data center only, but affected a slew of websites, from Cydia, to Foursquare. It took about two days for Amazon to identify and fix the issue that occurred at the EC2 data center, and slowly put the impacted websites back online one after the other.

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Apple’s Cloud Music Locker Service Almost Ready

Yesterday, Reuters reported that Apple “has completed work” on the highly anticipated cloud-based music service that will allow users to store music online, and access it anywhere using an iOS device or a computer.

However, Reuters also highlighted that Apple hadn’t secure any deals with music record labels yet. But, Wall Street Journal’s Peter Kafka reports that Apple has indeed spoken to record labels and the company “is actively seeking licenses for its service, and will pay the labels for the privilege.”

But wait a minute, isn’t this the same service that Amazon launched a few weeks ago? It is a cloud music service, but the approach seems to be a bit different. Amazon rushed their cloud based service offering in an effort to beat Apple and Google to the market, but in the process left out support for iOS devices, which is a huge chunk of the current mobile population and one that will grow without a doubt throughout 2011.

In addition, Amazon launched their service without getting formal approvals from large music record labels. As Peter Kafka confirmed, Apple has been working with the music labels to seek licenses for its cloud service. Mr. Kafka also went on to say that “that Apple has already procured deals from at least two of the big four labels (Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony and EMI) within the last two months.” Wait, it doesn’t end there. Eddy Cue, who runs iTunes and the App Store, is planning to meet with the remaining record labels today to close deals.

Much has been said about how Apple’s Media Locker service would look like. Many rumors have indicated that you will be able to leverage Apple’s cloud to store your files in a personal locker including music, photos, video, and eventually allow iOS 5 users to synchronize their devices with the cloud.

I could argue that Amazon’s service does the same thing. But here’s the catch. As Mr. Kafka referred to in his article, if Apple licenses the content provided via its cloud service, then Apple could create “a more robust service with better user interfaces, sound quality, and other features”. Why? I think the record labels will give Apple access to key features and other perks that could make its cloud service more attractive.

After all, it appears that Apple will allow us to upload songs from our hard drives and stream previously purchased iTunes songs directly from the cloud. Will Apple charge us for this service? Earlier rumors indicated that Apple’s media locker service would cost us around $20 per year. Stay tuned!

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Apple Q2 Results: Almost 5 Million iPads Sold from January to March

Apple just released its financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal year, which ended on March 26. During the quarter, Apple managed to sell a whopping 4.7 million iPads, a figure in line with our earlier predictions.

During the quarter, Apple manage to sell almost $25 billion worth of Macs and iOS devices, and pocketed an impressive profit of about $6 billion, a new record for Apple.”With quarterly revenue growth of 83 percent and profit growth of 95 percent, we’re firing on all cylinders,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “We will continue to innovate on all fronts throughout the remainder of the year.”

Since the launch of the iPad 2 on March 11 in the U.S., and in 25 additional countries on March 25, Apple “has sold every iPad 2 [the company] could make during the quarter,” an unsurprising statement, given that the iPad 2 has been almost impossible to find over the last month, despite Apple’s efforts at improving the availability of the device.

The iPad is also getting increasingly popular in the corporate world, as 75 percent of the Fortune 500 companies are now trialing or using the device on a regular basis. Companies using the device actively include Xerox, Autonation, ADP, Disney, and Prudential, to name a few.

Finally, iTunes generated about $1.4 billion in sales, a new record for Apple. iTunes sales were boosted by an ever expanding media portfolio, and more importantly, the 350,000 iOS apps available on the App Store

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iPad 2: Apple Stores Almost Out Of Stock

Demand for the iPad 2 seems incredibly high, as in less than an hour, most of the Apple Store located in the Dallas / Fort-Worth Metroplex are already almost out of stock.

At this stage, all models of the WiFi + 3G iPad (at&t) are completely sold out, while Verizon-compatible iPad 2s can still be purchased. Stocks of WiFi-only iPad 2s are running low, and many folks currently in line will likely come back home without an iPad 2 tonight.

As stressed earlier, the vast majority of folks are first time buyers, which seems to imply that an impressive amount of people have been waiting for the iPad 2 to be released to purchase their first tablet.

Tipsters across the nation also confirmed that inventories are running low, and that some models are already unavailable at most Apple retail stores.

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Max – The mouse with (almost) perfect manners – HD

Max Nibblington is the cute little mouse with a British accent in the digital comic animated for the iPad and iPhone by Ave!Comics. The story of this Camembert loving mouse begins in the town of Nibblingham where Max is preparing for a “VERY special night.” You see, it’s his girlfriend Molly’s birthday and Max has plans to take her to a fancy restaurant.

During their evening out, Max outsmarts Freddycat, uses his almost perfect manners to woo Molly and finds out she loves him just the way he is.

Users may choose to read on their own by swiping the pages to move through the story or select “Animation” to hear the story read to them. The Ave!Comics graphic novel reader combines animations, transitions and automatic zooms to create a fun digital comic reading experience.

Additional features include:
- A revolutionary reading experience using kinematics that create an animated path through the story
- Exploration mode to dive into each panel, zoom and pan
- Full support for multi-touch, swipe, landscape mode
- Page mode to display the original layout of the comic book

Great illustrations and an amusing story are sure to entertain preschoolers and kindergarteners alike. Max – The mouse with the (almost) perfect manners HD can be purchased in the App Store now for $1.99.

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iOS 4.2 for iPad Almost Ready, Early Releases Under Testing

As noted by MacRumors earlier today, some iOS developers seem to already have access to early releases of iOS 4.2 for the iPad. For example, Epic Games, the creator of the impressive Epic Citadel demo, released an update of the app over the weekend, and the notes coming with the new version contain an interesting tidbit:

Fixed performance issues on iPad devices running iOS 4 or later.

Given that iOS 4 will not land on the iPad until November, it is clear that some “select” developers have been working closely with Apple’s iOS development team and gained access to early versions of iOS 4.2 for iPad, in order to test the OS, and make sure their apps are compatible with it. Since Epic was featured during the Apple keynote earlier this month, it is very likely that Apple provided early iOS 4.2 builds to Epic to support its efforts to demo its Unreal Engine for iOS, weeks before the OS is actually pushed to the general developer program.

This preferential treatment is not unusual, and is usually limited to developers featured in the Apple media event. But this also means that testing builds of iOS 4.2 will likely be released to the developers community very soon, as it seems mature enough to be used by apps like Epic Citadel.